A New Beginning
by Noneofthecabswouldtakeme
Summary: Merlin saves Arthur's life on his way to Camelot, not knowing he's the prince. He has to use magic to heal Arthur and is caught in the act. Merlin shows Arthur how different magic is from what he's been taught, and they strike up a friendship. Once getting to city they have part ways and Arthur promises not to turn Merlin in. What happens when they meet again at a certain banquet?
1. Chapter 1

It still felt surreal, he hadn't even arrived in Camelot yet and just thinking about it could leave him feeling giddy with excitement or panicked with fear. He had dreamed for years of leaving Ealdor, ever since he was a child he knew he wouldn't stay there forever. It wasn't just the fact that it was clear he didn't fit with everyone else it was also that he couldn't allow himself to live out the rest of his life being nothing but a poor farmer and never seeing any of the world.

He had wanted to leave after turning eighteen (old enough to be able to get a decent job), but there had been hard winter and Ealdor had needed all of the help they could get in the fields. Even though his mother, Hunith, and himself didn't have a piece of land to themselves -besides the area around their home- they got the rest of their food from the rest of the village and he couldn't just not help the people he had grown up and had help him and his mother all throughout his life.

So here he was, already nineteen and less than a day's walk to Camelot. The thought of it this time brought a silly grin to his face and he couldn't help the little skip in his steps as he thought back to a few hours earlier when he had come to the top of a hill and had been able to see the top of the towers of the castle.

He wasn't able to see any of the castle now, he was deep in the middle of the forest that lay outside the city. The path was he was on wasn't the main road towards the city, so it was the only sign of human civilization at the moment, it had been a few hours since he past the last town located right at the edge of the forest.

The only person he had seen so far had been one grim faced man on a horse who had been galloping towards the city at a speed Merlin had never seen a horse move at before (not that he got to see many horses before). Ealdor didn't have any horses only had a mule, and they rarely got visitors -well, besides Gaius who came to visit them at least once a year. The horses he did see though, could never have gone that fast, so he assumed that the man was probably some sort of noble or knight.

It was about an hour later he decided to take a short break since he was making good time. He wasn't in a huge hurry even if he went as fast as he could without taking breaks he still wouldn't get to the city till after nightfall and the gates were closed by then so he'd have to make camp anyways.

He walked a little ways from the path wondering if maybe he could find a little stream that he could drink from, he had a water skin with him but he didn't want to waste it, beside he kind of wanted to explore the woods. He also had a feeling that Gaius would be asking him a lot to come out to the woods to gather herbs.

At the thought of the old physician he couldn't help but sigh as he thought of all the chores Merlin knew would be waiting for him in Camelot if he knew anything about Gaius at all. The man had always made him and Will gather large quantities of herbs and prepare them for transportation when he visited.

Merlin had sometimes wondered if that was the only reason why the man came to visit Ealdor was because he could stock up on wares there for free, but whenever Merlin mentioned it when complaining about it his mother would smack him on the back of the head and tell him that he should be happy to help his uncle Gaius (not that they were actually related to each other). When Gaius had caught him saying it one time he had just smiled and told him that if he really was taking advantage of free workers he would have taken him back back to Camelot with him to clean his leach tanks.

Merlin still wasn't sure whether or not it was joke to scare him as a child, he was afraid he'd get to Camelot and it would be the first thing Gaius would have him do. Deciding to stay on the man's good side just incase he really did have a leach tank he decided he could take some time to pick a few herbs to bring the man.

He took out a small empty bag that he had had stored some food in earlier and start picking plants, sometimes digging a little into the ground to pull out the roots with it. He may have complained non stop when Gaius or his mother would drill in the names, locations, properties, and uses of plants, but he knew how useful the information was.

His mother had been an apprentice to Gaius before she'd had him. She had left Camelot to live with his father (who he was, Merlin had no idea) and had never got to finish her apprenticeship, but even so, she had become their villages healer, it was one of the ways she made money or got food when she'd had him with no husband insight. Merlin sometimes thought of how much better his mother's life would have been if she hadn't been stuck with a bastard child, but she was happy and the one time he'd mentioned it to her she'd given him a long hard hug and told him to never say such things that he was greatest thing to have ever happen to her.

Once he'd gotten old enough that she didn't have to watch him constantly she had started studying books Gaius had given her to expand her knowledge on healing. In the past years people from neighboring villages would come to her for help, since the cities were too far away to move a sick person to and it would take too long to bring the healer back before the person died, not to mention hardly anyone would be able to afford a healers. Hunith hardly ever charged people for her help, but people usually still give them what they can be it clothes, food, or money.

Merlin often helped whenever he could (since he wasn't of much use in the fields), making bandages, boiling water, grinding up herbs and such but he didn't know much besides the basics to healing. When he had been younger he had hated all the sick people that had to come their house, the blood and/or vomit made him feel sick so he spent a lot of time at Wills. He had grown used to it eventually and he could tell that his mother loved being able to help people. She always felt the most accomplished and fulfilled when she was able to successfully able to heal someone.

In the past few years -since he was around 15- Hunith found she had more time on her hands now that she didn't have to watch over him and Will as much anymore now that they were older and could work, so she had started growing her own herbs. Their house, as well as Wills, was covered in plants, the front and back yards filled with herbs as well as a few other plants. So, not only did he know the names, locations, and properties of plants he also knew how to grow them -not that that would be of much used to him now that he was going to be living in the city.

He'd been walking around about half an hour when he heard the sound of water, grinning he followed it to find a small stream. He kneeled down splashing some water on his face before cupping some between his hands and drinking the icy water from his palms.

He was reaching for his water skin to fill up when he noticed that he wasn't the only person here, but as he took in the man who was flat on his stomach on the muddy bank opposite of him with his legs dipped into the water he realized he was certainly the only conscious person here.

Worried he immediately waded through the stream to get to the other side, the water barely making it past his knees.

"Sir, excuse me sir," He called out as he came to knee next to the man, shaking his shoulder. The man didn't move or make a sound. Merlin was now worried fearing he had just found a dead man, he placed his finger on the man's neck and let out a relieved sigh when he felt a pulse, a very weak pulse but a pulse all the same. He turned the man over then.

"Shit," He whispered, as he took in the sight of the man. The man was bleeding from his right shoulder, and from what he could see this was no small slash.

He acted quickly, not thinking too much about it just knowing he had to _do_ , it was a mind frame that he had had to work on so that he didn't freeze up in panic every time someone was brought to the house a bleeding mess.

He dragged the man away from muddy river bank and onto the dry grass. Without thinking too much about it he used his magic to clear the little area, pushing all the rocks and twigs away, something he had been practicing every night on his journey here so that he didn't have to worry about rocks digging into his back as he slept.

The man was blonde but it was hard to tell with all the dirt in his hair, he was very well built, his clothes weren't flashy but up close Merlin could tell that they were very fine quality which was probably why he'd been attacked, so he was most likely harmed by bandits considering he didn't have anything on him.

Merlin put him on his back and slipped off the leather jerkin the man was wearing, he then ripped the collar of the shirt so he could he could see the wounds. He winced when he saw it, if it had been any closer to the man neck he would have surely already have bleed to death. It looked like it was a stab wound but it was too deep. It looked like someone had tried to stab him then slashed down cutting down his chest. The cut was at least six inches long.

He ripped the rest of the shirt off and used it to press into the wounds. He was struck with the terrifying realization that this man's life was in his hands, even if Merlin could carry him they would never make it to Gaius in time. He checked the man's pulse again it didn't seemed to have changed.

He took off his pack and took out the pot he used for cooking, it wasn't very big but it would have to do. He reached out his hand and twigs and branches were summoned to him, he pulled them quickly together and with another glow of his eyes a fire was burning. He ran over to the river and filled up the pot and grabbed the bag of herbs he dropped when he had knelt next to the blonde.

He set up the pot so it was over the fire, then used his magic to speed up the boiling process. He emptied out his water skin before dunking the waterskin in the water once it started boiling, knowing he was probably running it but he needed to only use clean water on the man or risk him getting an infection. He put the lid on it and put it to the side to cool down before he used it, then, using his handkerchief to hold pot, filled pot again. This time he took out his extra pair of clothes and dumped them into the water to be sanitized so he could use them as bandages.

He then knelt next to the man took off the clothes then used the water from his waterskin to clean the wound (also using it to clean his own hands as well leaving them red from the hot water), once he was sure they were clean enough he took out a bowl that he used for eating and started using that to grinned up the herbs up in.

He didn't think about how the man had already lost so much blood, about how he didn't have proper bandages, or how he didn't have the time to prepare the herbs like he needed to, he just did, and he did it as fast as he could.

A paste, that Merlin was not completely happy with, was applied onto wound the wound he would need stitches but not only did he not have a needle or thread he did not know how to do stitches. He took his shirt out of the small pot and used magic to dry it before ripping it to pieces and wrapping it around the blondes shoulder.

He didn't know what else he could do besides wait. So he started to wash the rest of the man, he had been laying face down in the mud after all, before laying him down on his bedroll next to the fire and covering him with his thin blanket, the man barely even groan during the whole process. He collected more wood as well as more plants, but never went far, staying as close as he possibly could to the man just in case.

Merlin took out his pair of pants he had put in the boiling water and dried those with his magic as well, before putting them in his pack so they wouldn't get dirty so that he could use them for extra bandages. He then took the man blood stained shirt and jerkin to the river to wash.

The shirt was still pink when he was done, and he put that in the pot to be sanitized for bandage use as well since the shirt was already ruined. He thought about using magic to dry the jerkin but he didn't know what would happen if he used the magic on leather and didn't want to risk ruining it more than it already was so he just put it on a tree branch to dry.

Spent the next hour making a better paste out of everything he could find, and out of the few that he had been given by his mother before he left home for just in case. He continually checked the man's pulse, and grew more and more worried when it just got worse.

He would have to do it he decided. He would have to use magic. His mother and Gaius both had warned him about using magic when healing, he had still tried to use it on one of his mother patients. He had been a little less experienced with his magic than he was now, and had just tried to pour his magic into the woman. In doing so he had actually speed up the process. He had never forgiven himself, and had begged Gaius to teach him incantations so that he could save her. He had refused, telling him he couldn't mess with the balance of life and death, that there was nothing they could do and it was her time to die.

Placing a hand on the man's forehead and another on his heart Merlin closed his eyes and took deep breathes finding the part of himself deep inside and brought it forth, down his arms and out of his fingertips and into the man below him.

His eyes were open now, though he didn't notice it, and blazing golden staring off into the distance. He was so focused that he didn't notice the rise of temperature around him or the way leaves seemed to flowing around him in some sort of air curtain or the way that the man's eyes flew open with a gasp.

What he did notice was when he was roughly pushed on to his back and a strong hand came around his throat.

"What were you doing to me sorcerer?" The man screamed, the last word coming out like a curse.

"Saving your life, you prat!" Merlin spat out, hands coming up to try and push away the man's hands. He wasn't suffocating but it was difficult to breath.

"What?" The man's narrowed eyes moved away from him for the first time to take in his surroundings. After looking around the camp he looked down at himself to see the bandage. If the man wasn't threatening his life right now and he wasn't worn out from all the magic he used he would have laughed at the comical look on the blondes face, he looked so confused like the world was trying to trick him.

"Saving me?" He repeated, loosening his grip a little.

"When I found you, you were half way in the river and bleeding out in the mud." Merlin pointed over to where the river was, even though you couldn't see it from here you could hear it. "And then I dragged you here, but you had already lost so much blood and I didn't have the right supplies to save you so I had to use magic, though I'm kind of regretting it now." He murmured the last part darkly.

"So you used magic?"

"Yes I did, you ass." Merlin snapped, the insult made the blonde tighten his grip around him and narrow his eyes dangerously.

"You can't speak to me that way."

"I can speak to you however I want, who do you think you are?" The man opened his mouth to retort but then paused as if just then hearing his words for the first time.

"You don't know who I am?" He asked slowly, his hand loosening and now just resting above his throat, Merlin kept his body still waiting for the best moment to escape this man.

"Should I?" Merlin asked looking the man over wondering if he was suddenly appear to be someone he should recognize. Then he paused, glancing over at the jacket the man had been wearing. Maybe he had stolen it? "You're not a bandit are you?" It would be just his luck, saving a man who turned out to be theif then getting robbed. "I have nothing of value, just take what you want and let me go." He said, this man was clearly well built and he had noticed scars all over his body, clearly from many fights.

"What? No I'm not," The blonde denied vehemently, staring at Merlin like he was the strangest thing he'd ever seen before he started laughing hysterically. He let go of Merlin and sat back holding his stomach as he laughed like a madman. Merlin sat up slowly and observed the man cautiously.

"Are you okay?" Merlin asked wondering if his magic had had any negative side effects, but the question only caused the man to laugh louder.

"Am I okay? Am I okay?" Merlin decided that man surely wasn't okay. "A man who you think was about to kill you, and trust me I was, and you ask him if he is okay?"

Merlin stared at him with deadpan look, not amused.

"Oh my god, what a day. First my manservant sells me out to some bandits when I go on a hunting trip, I almost die, only to be saved by a sorcerer who mistakes me for a common thief."

"Manservant? Why would you have a manservant?" Merlin eyes grew wide with horror. "Oh no, you're a noble aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm a knight." The blonde said proudly, seemingly recovered from his hysterical fit. Merlin went pale. He now wished this man was a bandit.

"Shit." Was all Merlin could say, and the man seemed to know what he was thinking.

"Yeah, not the best person to be using magic around."

 **A/N: Thank you everyone! I hope to hear what you have to say about this fic. I want to let everyone know that the cover picture is not mine, I totally lied when I agreed to it, so if anyone knows the artist please let me know so I can give them credit and ask their permission to use the art.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone!**

 **I've posted the next chapter for this story but I'm not updating it on this account anymore.**

 **It's under the same name "A New Beginning" but the account it's under is "OneHellOfAMarshmellow"**

 **(Don't judge me on the name, I came up with it years ago).**

 **Please go check out the second chapter!**

 **And have a great day!**

 **(づ￣ ³￣)づ**


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